Recap: Town Board okays ambulance billing for auto accidents

The Riverhead Town Board on Tuesday approved a new five-year contract with the Riverhead Volunteer Ambulance corps that, for the first time, will allow the corps to begin billing the insurance companies of people involved in automobile accidents that require ambulance service.

Town officials have said the move can bring in about $400,000 per year in revenue.

The ambulance corps will still need to hire a billing company, and to obtain computer hardware and software and training in how to use it, according to RVA board of directors member Ron Rowe. The corps also will need an office and a secure location to store records, he said.

Also Tuesday:

• The Town Board approved Sonoma Grill’s application to have a live music at the new restaurant it plans at the site of the former Riverhead Project.

• Hired an outside law firm, McGiff Halverson LLP of Patchouge, to handle the town’s lawsuit against Gershow Recycling.

• Approved a $10,000 settlement with the owners of the BJ’s/Kmart shopping center for illegally clearing trees along Route 58.

• Ordered the town engineering department to being removing a cupola built on a Baiting Hollow home owned by Eugene Lafurno that the town maintains is too tall and not safe.

To read what else happened at Tuesday’s Town Board meeting, click below to read a recap of News-Review reporter Tim Gannon’s live blog of the meeting, and scroll down for the full meeting agenda and resolution packet.